How we live in this fallen world

Sunday

Aug 24, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Persecution and suffering. These are words that have been on my mind lately due to the systematic genocide of believers in some Middle East countries. It’s gotten so bad there that certain countries are gearing up for military action. Who knows when it’s going to end; it makes me pray, daily, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”This has made me continue to think a bit more about our topic of how we live in this fallen world. The truth is that the Christian life is a pilgrimage. In Islam there is the something called the Haj. This is the trip to Mecca that every Muslim is to make at some point in their life, if they are able. Christians have used trips to the so-called Holy Land in the same way. There are pilgrimages also in Buddhism, Hinduism, and other faiths.I think that there is a fundamental problem with all of these approaches to pilgrimage: they’re all temporary and can be undertaken (or not) at will. The truth is that from beginning to end, our life here is one of being a pilgrim. Think about it: a pilgrim is one who is traveling to another destination, never fully settled. This describes our lives perfectly. Paul says that we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20). Peter reminds us that we are waiting for a new creation (2 Peter 3:10-13).In the past weeks we’ve considered the language that the Bible uses for Christians in this life: wanderers, strangers, and aliens. Before we move on to the implications of these words, and an overview of first and second Peter, I’d like to consider one last word that has been used throughout church history to describe the Christian in this life: Pilgrim.This is what I want us to understand: Christians do not undertake a pilgrimage at some point in their lives; rather, the whole of the Christian life is one of pilgrimage. This is not something that we decide to do but is something that is our reality. In order to see this as a pattern for our lives, let’s take a look at a familiar Bible character: Abraham.Remember that Abraham was called out of his land, and out of his sin. Abraham’s family had been polytheists, those who worshipped many gods (Joshua 24:2). Abraham was confronted by God and he believed God (Genesis 12:1-3). In response to his faith, God promised to bring Abraham into the Promised Land and to give him descendants. Here’s the thing: Abraham never dwelt in the Promised Land. He visited, sure, but he never set down roots there. His whole life he was a pilgrim. Even in his death, he only had a plot of land that he had purchased for an extraordinary price. This humble plot reminded him, though, of God’s promises.When we turn to the book of Hebrews, we find God’s explanation of what was going through Abraham’s mind at the time. He is listed in chapter 11 as the man of faith. This makes sense, of course, as we consider all that God had promised and how little Abraham saw with his own eyes. More than that, though, we see that Abraham saw beyond the external promises to the promises behind those things.God had promised Abraham a descendent, a seed, and in Galatians 3 the Apostle Paul explains that God was telling Abraham about Jesus. He is the promised seed. Moreover, when Abraham saw the land that God showed him, he saw something more. Hebrews 11:9-10 tells us that he went and dwelt there, in faith, “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”For all that Abraham saw, he looked beyond that and trusted that God would deliver on his promises in a grand way. In Hebrews 13:14, the author connects Abraham’s hope to ours: “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” This verse is huge for our lives as Christians in this world! We do not have a city, here, but we are waiting for what is to come.Like Abraham, we live in this world knowing that this is not the end of the promises that God has made. One day we will die and our bodies will be buried. Like Abraham, our bodies will be buried in the hope of the resurrection and the new creation. This helps us as we pray for those who suffer in this life.Pastor Everett Henes, the pastor of the Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, can be reached at pastorhenes@gmail.com.